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Biosphere 2
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Biosphere 2 Biosphere 2
Biosphere 2
Biosphere 2 Biosphere 2, located in Oracle, Arizona, U.S., shown in 2008. The facility was originally developed to study survivability and assess whether humans were capable of building and living in self-sustaining colonies in outer space. It was later used as a scientific research facility.

Biosphere 2

scientific research facility
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Written by
Kara Rogers
Kara Rogers is the senior editor of biomedical sciences at Encyclopædia Britannica, where she oversees a range of content from medicine and genetics to microorganisms. She joined Britannica in 2006 and...
Kara Rogers
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Biosphere 2, scientific research facility located in Oracle, Arizona, U.S., designed to emulate Earth’s environment (Biosphere 1) that was perhaps best known for two missions conducted in the early 1990s in which crews were sealed inside the enclosure to study survivability. The driving force for these studies was to assess whether humans were capable of building and living in self-sustaining colonies in outer space. The terrarium design for Biosphere 2 was conceived in the 1980s by American engineer John P. Allen, who was the director of Space Biospheres Ventures, a joint venture that in 1984 purchased the property where the ...(100 of 1090 words)

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